Pronunciation of Modena

Mah-dena the E and A are short sounding not long.

 

In Italian, O's are long, so it's MOE; it's probably actually pronounced MOE.day.nuh with the accent on the first syllable, but the second syllable is so short, you hardly hear it...

 

i got a friend with one and he said in italy they dont pronounce the d, swallow the D and accent the N.

so Mo'n na

Lamarossa

 

This might help.

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0833537.html

 

from a reliable source:

Mo - doh - na

 

Moe-day-na=Modena

Fee-or-ah-no=Fiorano

Ciao! (chow)

 

Well, I'm more confused than ever (and yes, I've read the archives). There still seems to be no agreement. Maybe there are regional dialects that affect how it is pronounced.

Gary

 

In April of this year my new Modena arrived. I was very anxious to know how to pronounce it. My first clue came from a tape of the unveiling of the 612 at the Detroit auto show last January. Luca di Montezemolo, explained that the 612 made extensive use of aluminum, a technology mastered by Ferrari when they built the Modena. I played the clip over and over to hear his pronunciation of Modena. In May of this year I went to Modena and asked everybody from the hotel receptionist to the waiter in the restaurant, to the girls selling tickets for the Ferrari Museum in Maranello. They all said "Maw den ah" with the accent on the first syllable.

The following web site has a dictionary that pronounces words for you. You can hear for yourself.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/23/M0362300.html

 

Since this has been such a longstanding dilemma at FerrariChat, I thought it decent to lend you guys a hand

I am by no means a linguistics expert, but being blessed (or should I say cursed?) with birth into Italian family-characteristically reluctant to speak anything other than Italian at the dinner table-I think I may be able to help, even if it's just a little.

So I thought I would record some puzzling prancing-pony pronunciations and help shed some light on the situation. You will have to forgive the ailing quality of my cheap computer microphone and the fact that I'm certainly no opera singer. My Italian isn't flawless, but here's my best crack at some Ferrari terms:

Modena: http://members.iinet.net.au/~filidei/sounds/modena.mp3
Maranello: http://members.iinet.net.au/~filidei/sounds/maranello.mp3
Scaglietti: http://members.iinet.net.au/~filidei/sounds/scaglietti.mp3
Stradale: http://members.iinet.net.au/~filidei/sounds/stradale.mp3
And
Ferrari (but who doesn't know this one? ): http://members.iinet.net.au/~filidei/sounds/ferrari.mp3

Hope it helps!

 

Thats the site I was looking for earlier, to me that says it all, no question anymore. Just don't forget to click on the little speaker next to the word.

 

I hate to sound nitpicky, but that site pronounces Modena is incorrectly. The "o" sounds too much like an "aw", and it comes off as having an American inflection.

 

Your pronunciation sounds like something in between "o" and "aw". I think you have to be Italian to pull that off. I've tried, but my white bread Anglo roots
only allow for an "o" or an "aw". Are you saying that "o" is closer than "aw'?

 

MO-de-na

It irks me that Americans think that all foreign words are accentuated on the next-to-the-last syllable. As in "mo-DE-na" or "mur-cie-LA-go".

 

The hardest part in trying to convey pronunciations, especially through written word, is that dialect plays a huge part in the way we pronounce our syllables and how we apply inflections.
Right now the closest example to the "Mo" in Modena I can come up with would be the "Mo" in Moccasin. But even then it would only be valid if you pronounced moccasin in a British dialect. When you pronounce it with an American accent the "oh" sound tends to droop closer towards an "aw" tone. I heard somewhere this is partly due to the fact that a lot of American intonations occur near the back of the throat, instead of at the tongue.

I can't think of any examples in American words where the "o" sound-as occurs in Modena-wouldn't lean toward the "aw"; hence the considerable difficulty in trying to communicate the effect.

Perhaps, and rather aptly, if you think back to the old children's ditty: "You say potatoe, I say potat-oh", the ending of the second pronounciation of potat-oh would be as close to Modena as the US "o" can get (that I can currently recall). The two different endings are a good spectrum of how the "aw" and "o" can differ, and to pronounce the word correctly you have to catch the throat before it reaches too far back toward the "aw".

Hope it helps, rather than confuses

 

Siamo in accordo Francoc.....

(I agree with you Francoc)

 

The key to speaking Italian is light/soft tongue movement (that's why it is a Romance language-just kidding!!!) and heavy hand motions (kidding again......)

 

I speak decent Italian and have heard it pronounced by real Italians from Italy (American Italians who make pizza are not whom I am reffering to.)

The proper way is:

MOE-daynah

MOOOOO-daynah

 

In italian the "D" is always well pronounced.

 

You were right all along, it was the other guy who is wrong and he would be wrong even if he was italian and fluent.
If you have any friends who speak spanish they will pronounce the word correctly but they will put the accent at "mo DE na" as this is the natural spanish way of pronunciating a 3 syllable word. If it is of any help listen to a spanish person say it and then give the accent at "MO de na", you can't go wrong with this.

 

In America, people pronounce it many different ways because we have many different people here. I am full American and i pronounce it, and always have, MO-DEENA. I hear the Italians speak it Mah-den-a, I believe the Italians it's just that I can't say it without sounding stupid.

 

If you're referring to me here, I assure you I am very fluent in Italian If there is any disagreement with the pronounciations I have supplied it doesn't bother me, but in Italian there are so many dialects that the perception of any given word can certainly change based on which region you hear it in.
So I challenge anyone who would think the mp3s I provided were flawed. Listen to the pronounciations and you can't go wrong

 

I, for one, really appreciate your input on this. I think I've finally nailed "Modena", but I've concluded "Maranello" is more mispronounced and much harder to say. Thanks again

 

My pleasure. Glad I could help

 

The stradale pronunciation is one I have never heard like it before, is sounds like "stanale" or something like it, totally weird to me. I for one say it like all the italians I know including my exwife and godfather who are from italia and none of them pronounce it that way, they are from napoli and assisi. I am spaniard and because of this I can pronounce any latin based language second nature, we can understand italian very easily without ever having to study it and to be fluent it takes but a summer fling.

 

Well, I called Ferrari, and had the woman on the other end of the phone pronounce it for me.

Now I KNOW how to say it.

On a side note, "What" is universal lingo for, "WHAT"

Also, the banging of the reciever on the desk is NOT good customer service.

Once I recover from this, I will ask them how "Challenge Stradale" is pronounced.